Thursday, August 18, 2011

Today, we've got the first of my collection of four Darkwing Duck scripts. I purchased these teleplays about a year ago, from eBay, just thinking they were another awesome thing to add to my always growing Darkwing Duck collection. Little did I know, these scripts belonged to Ron Feinberg, the voice of S.H.U.S.H. (the secret spy organization Darkwing sometimes worked for) agent Grizzlikof!

Ron Feinberg was a character actor who, before moving to voice acting primarily, guest starred on many classic shows, such as Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, and the classically forgotten caveman sitcom, It's About Time!

All four of these scripts are obviously Grizzlikof-featuring episodes, and in fact are some of my favorites. Today's script is for "Bad Tidings", a Batman meets I Love Lucy style episode where Grizzlikof and Darkwing have to put their differences aside to stop Steelbeak (my favorite Darkwing Duck villain) and his evil organization F.O.W.L. (the Fiendish Organization for World Larceny) from conquering the world with their tidal wave machine. Yep. A TIDAL WAVE MACHINE. God, I love cartoons.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Today, we have the REVISED FIRST DRAFT Screenplay for the greatest comedy film of all time, ¡Three Amigos!.

¡Three Amigos! is by far the funniest and most quotable film of all time, ya son of a motherless goat. See? I just quoted it right there! This amazing film was directed by John Landis, and written by the one-time writing trio of the always hilarious Steve Martin, SNL Executive Producer Lorne Michaels, and songwriter Randy Newman. Yes,THAT Randy Newman.

¡Three Amigos! follows the storyline of three down-on-their-luck silent film actors - Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander. When a village in Mexico is being terrorized by the infamous El Guapo, they call out to the Three Amgios, a group of actors, who have just lost their jobs at Goldsmith Pictures. Unfortunately for everyone, the villagers think they are real gunfighters, and the Amgios think it's "just another show". Hilarity ensues… and I'm not being facetious when I say that. And, like all great films, ¡Three Amigos! features guns, drunks, music, Mexicans, dancing, sweaters, an invisible swordsman, and of course, the singing bush!

This screenplay is a revised first draft, dated 7/18/85. Like most early drafts, this one features many differences from the released film, as well as some notations in the margins. For example - Dusty's name in this version is "Lester", there's an alternate opening scene, an alternate introduction for the Amigos (featuring the Amgios in the studio mansion), and a scene where the Amgios encounter Indians who bury them up to their necks in sand. For an Amigo nerd like me, this is Heaven.

I've always been disappointed that I've never been able to see these scenes that I'd always read about… but the wait might finally be over! This November, the Blu-Ray will be released, and according to John Landis, it will include a plethora of extra scenes!

***UPDATE***The Blu-Ray DOES include the alternate opening scene as well as the alternate Amigo introduction and song! GO GET THE BLU-RAY NOW!!

So sit back, grab a bottle of Tequila (it's like beer!), and enjoy reading the original screenplay for "¡THREE AMIGOS!"